Nov. 23, 2011
Final Stats
ATHENS, Ohio - Led by 16 first-half points from Erin Bailes, Ohio Women's Basketball improved to 2-1 on the season with a 65-51 victory over the visiting Belmont Bruins Wednesday evening at the Convocation Center. The Bobcats feasted on 23 Belmont turnovers on the day before Thanksgiving, scoring 23 points off Bruin miscues.
The Bobcats played very sound basketball on Wednesday, shooting 24 of 31 (77 percent) from the free-throw line and scoring 12 fast-break points. Ohio's bench outscored its Belmont counterpart by a seven-point margin, 21-14. Mariah Byard (Mannington, W.Va.) scored a career-high nine points and the four three pointers made by Bailes (Huntington, W.Va.) just missed tying a career high.
Ohio used two first-half runs to build a 38-23 halftime lead and extended its margin to as large as 24 in the second half en route to its second-straight victory.
The teams traded the lead three times in the game's first seven minutes before the Bobcats began to extend their advantage. A three-point field goal by Ashley Fowler (Cincinnati, Ohio) seven minutes into the half gave Ohio the lead for good and came as part of an 11-2 run that saw the Bobcats build an eight-point edge.
The lead grew to 10 before Belmont (0-5) got a layup from Haley Nelson to cut the margin to 25-17 with 6:55 left in the frame. From that point Ohio went on a 13-5 spurt and hit six of its next seven shots, giving the Bobcats their largest lead of the period at 38-22. Ohio shot 6-of-11 from three-point range in the first half, with Bailes hitting 4-of-5 from distance.
After the intermission, Ohio picked up right where it left off. A little more than two minutes into the half, Alesia Howard (Columbus, Ohio) scored five straight points to spark a 15-2 Bobcat run that gave Ohio its largest lead at 53-29 with 14:30 to play. The Bobcats methodically took care of business from this point on, playing smart and getting to the free-throw line where they sank 14 of 18 attempts in the second half.
Molly Ernst led Belmont with 11 points while Nelson contributed 10 points and five rebounds.
The Bobcats return to the court Saturday to host Chicago State. Tipoff is set for 2:00 p.m. at the Convocation Center.
